High School ‘Constructability,’ Energy Set For A Review

POTTSTOWN PA – Now that the Pottsgrove School District has officially requested bids for the proposed renovation and expansion of Pottsgrove High School, the Board of School Directors tonight (Tuesday, March 25, 2014) is scheduled to discuss the building’s “constructability,” and potentially enter into a contract for guidance in the installation of its energy-efficient features.

Contractors’ bids for the proposed renovation of Pottsgrove High School must be submitted by April 17 to school district Business Administrator David Nester, seen here during the school board’s March 11 meeting

Contractors’ bids for the $30-plus million dollar project – the exact amount remains undetermined, because directors have yet to decide which portions of the plan will stay or be eliminated – must be returned to the district in 22 days, by April 17. Its call for bids was initially advertised March 17, and repeated Monday (March 24).

While board members await those numbers, however, an agenda for their meeting tonight in the district office on Kauffman Road anticipates they will discuss at least two renovation-related items. The first is described, with no other explanation, as a “Pottsgrove High School Constructability Review.” The second authorizes the administration to sign “a consulting agreement” with a Philadelphia architectural firm that specializes in sustainable buildings.

Pottsgrove representatives had an appointment to appear in Harrisburg last Thursday (March 20) for a decision on the district’s application for a $2 million state Alternative and Clean Energy program grant to pay for “green” and energy-efficient systems. They would allow the completed high school to meet the standards of a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold-certified building.

Mike Kelly of KCBA Architects, the district’s lead architectural firm in the high school project, has said LEED gold certification ““is incredibly difficult to meet, but we think we can do it.” If the state approves Pottsgrove’s application for the grant, it will need a consultant to ensure all grant requirements are satisfied.

The administration is recommending a consulting contract with Re:Vision Architects of Philadelphia, which according to its website has accumulated a record of successes in such work.

Also tonight, the board is slated to:

Review proposed 2014-2015 academic year budgets for the district’s athletics and facilities departments;

Hear a report from its policy committee; and

Consider approving a memorandum of understanding with PathStone Corporation, a Rochester NY-based not-for-profit regional community development and human service organization.

Pathstone’s website reports the group provides “services to farm workers, low-income families and economically depressed communities” in Pennsylvania and elsewhere in “programs funded by federal, state, local, faith-based and private sources.” The nature of its understanding with the school district was not included on the agenda.